The good folks over at the Boy Genius Report got their hands on the Palm Pre and overall their take on the device is about what I expected – good, but not great.
Specifically, they really liked the screen, which they described as “vibrant” and “rich”, but they felt that the keyboard left a lot to be desired.
It’s really not good. My hands aren’t that big (I can type faster than you could ever dream on a BlackBerry, iPhone or E71) and my thumb literally takes up 3 or 4 keys on the keyboard. There’s less space in between each key than say, a BlackBerry Curve 8300 keyboard, and the texture takes some time to get used to…
It’s really such an important area that couldn’t afford to be messed with and we’ll admit it… we’re a little let down. You’re going after the big guns here, and this is kind of disappointing.
What I found interesting is that the review notes that the multimedia aspect of the device “was unable to be explored.” Hmm, I suppose you can take that to mean that multimedia playback will either be really good or bad. And given reports that the Pre can connect seamlessly with iTunes, maybe the media player on the Pre is eerily similar to the one on the iPhone? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Overall, the Pre looks like a solid first offering from Palm, but an iPhone killer it certainly is not.
You can check out BGR’s full review of the Palm Pre over here.
Also, Engadget confirms that the Pre will be a Sprint exclusive through 2009.
Fri, May 29, 2009
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